Iodine Tincture as Reducer/Bleach

Can Iodine Tincture be used as an effective reducer on negatives? My speficic application is: need to remove all traces of density on certain areas of a fog mask. The mask was made on litho film.

Pot. Ferricyanide is much too slow to accomplish what I need to accomplish.

Thanks in advance.

Yes it can.

However not all the stain is always removed by refixing. I used to use it on resin coated paper and the trick was to place the paper back in some developer after fixing & a brief wash. The Iodine is staining the emulsion.

Or you could use:

Ilford IR-4 Iodine Reducer
Potassium Iodide 16g
Iodine 4g
Water to 1litre

Use I part stock solution + 19 parts Water

Rinse after reducing and refix in plainhypo bath

JackRosa said:

Can Iodine Tincture be used as an effective reducer on negatives? My speficic application is: need to remove all traces of density on certain areas of a fog mask. The mask was made on litho film.

Pot. Ferricyanide is much too slow to accomplish what I need to accomplish.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Are yiu sure? I have made some pretty stout ferricyanide bleaches. Try the rehalogenating bleach that is used in sulfide-sepia toning. Use the stock solution. There should be no problem with ordinary sodium thiosulfate solution for fixing, or whatever else you have handy.

I have used tincture of iodine for removing black spots from prints due to pinholes in negatives when the negatives are too small to treat with opaquing fluid. You can use a toothpick as applicator. It works rapidly, so you will probably have to use Spotone afterward, but it beats carving the spots out.